Eduard Roschmann
| Eduard Roschmann | |
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| Born |
25 November 1908 Graz, Austria |
| Died | 8 August 1977 (aged 68) Asunción, Paraguay |
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Eduard Roschmann (alias "Frederico/Federico Wagner" or "Frederico/Federico Wegener"; 25 November 1908 – 8 August 1977) was a member of the Nazi SS organization and commandant of the Riga ghetto during 1943. He was responsible for numerous murders and other atrocities. As a result of a fictionalised portrayal in the novel The Odessa File by Frederick Forsyth and its subsequent film adaptation, Roschmann came to be known as the "Butcher of Riga".
Roschmann was born on 25 November 1908, in Graz-Eggenberg, in Austria.
Roschmann was once a lawyer in Graz, Austria. He was the son of a brewery manager. He was reputed to have come from the Styria region of Austria, from a good family. From 1927 to 1934 Roschmann was a member of the Fatherland's Front, which in turn was part of the Austrian home guard ("Heimatschutz"). From 1927 to 1934 Roschmann was associated with an organisation called the "Steyr Homeland Protection Force." Roschmann spent six semesters at a university. By 1931 he was a brewery employee, joining the civil service in 1935. In 1938 he joined the Nazi Party, and the SS the following year. In January 1941 he was assigned to the Security Police.
Within the SS Roschmann was assigned to the Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst), often referred to by its German initials SD. Following the German occupation of Latvia in the Second World War, the SD established a presence in Latvia with the objective of killing all the Jews in the country. To this end, the SD established the Riga ghetto.
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